


Terms of Endearment

by allthegoodnamesaretakendammit



Series: The Spirit Is Willing [2]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Animal Transformation, Canon-Typical Violence, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Pompous Pep, Pre-Slash, Vlad is an okay guy sometimes, adventures in badgerhood, an unexpected vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-16
Updated: 2017-10-16
Packaged: 2019-01-15 21:26:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12329190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allthegoodnamesaretakendammit/pseuds/allthegoodnamesaretakendammit
Summary: In which the moniker “little badger” becomes surprisingly literal.





	Terms of Endearment

When Danny reaches downtown, the streets are overrun with confused-looking flamingos and flailing deer and singing blue birds and snorting rhinos. So he has an inkling of what’s about to happen when the ancient, cackling witch points her wand at him and strikes him right in the chest with a spell, and then she vanishes in a literal puff of smoke. Vlad comes charging through the dissipating smoke just a moment too late, looking furious at her retreat. Then he glances around the crowded street, calling, “Daniel? Where are you?”

 

Danny stops inspecting his own fur long enough to stand up on his hind legs to get Vlad’s attention. And sure enough, Vlad’s eyes zero in on him and go comically round. Soon, though, there's a smile playing at the corner of his lips as he says, “Oh. Oh my.” Vlad floats close enough to pick him up and Danny allows it, figuring that it’s better than getting trampled by rhinos.

 

Danny still isn’t precisely sure of what he’s become until Vlad holds him up in front of a window and there, staring back at him, is a little badger in Vlad Masters’ arms. A white and black striped face. Black button nose, perked ears and, as if a consolation prize, sharp claws on every foot. Really, that’s the point where Danny wants to start freaking out. But he doesn’t get a chance to before Vlad pets down his back, following the stripes on his head like they’re painted on pavement. Danny can feel himself melt into a black and white puddle as Vlad does it again, making it impossible to focus on anything. He keeps it up all the way back to Wisconsin, and Danny honestly couldn’t say whether they fly or drive or what because his whole world is that warm hand moving over his back. It only stops when Vlad sets him down on his plush living room carpet, placing a bowl of oats and sunflower seeds and fruit in front of him.

 

Danny gorges himself on it, wondering if badgers stress-eat because crunching on this stuff is so satisfying that he forgets where he is again, just for a minute. He only stops when the bowl is empty, lapping at the water dish next to it for a bit. When he finally looks up from that, the living room looks totally different. Vlad has apparently been busy collecting what seems to be every pillow in the house, piling them on the floor to form one enormous, fluffy mountain. Vlad gestures at it, smirking and saying, “Well? Aren’t you going to say thank you?”

 

Danny thanks him by burrowing into the pillows and falling asleep within moments between a football-shaped cushion and a quilted throw pillow.

 

*

 

Badgers must be nocturnal or something. Because when Danny wakes up and leaves his warm nest to find the moon already up on the other side of the window, he just feels refreshed. Vlad is reclined on a couch nearby, reading something called _Beyond Good and Evil_ and informing him calmly, “Your family believes we’ve gone camping, and your friends are too busy actually camping to dispute the matter.” Danny chuffs his agreement, not even having thought to worry about that yet.

 

Soon, though, he gets restless. He can’t stop himself from shuffling over and under all of the furniture, chittering anxiously at how closed-in the room feels. He needs to hunt, needs to use his claws, _really_ use them.

 

Out of nowhere, Vlad picks him up again, and Danny goes along with it because Vlad heads immediately for the backdoor. The night air is brisk and fresh and Danny feels calmer already under the blanket of stars.

 

“Daniel,” Vlad says, his voice utterly serious. “If I put you down, I need you to not run away. Do you understand?” Danny presses his nose to Vlad’s, staring unblinkingly into his eyes. Vlad sets him down on the grass and Danny immediately, instinctively rolls himself around in it, loving its pure green smell. He’s pretty sure he hears Vlad smother a laugh and the click of a camera, but he doesn’t really care because this grass needs exploring, dammit, and he’s just the badger for the job.

 

By the time five hours have passed, Danny has learned that he can dig and climb and swipe his claws at crickets and sniff out worms and that he’s the only badger for miles around. When he’s well and truly tired and he’s groomed himself thoroughly, he pads over to where Vlad has been sipping on a mojito on a lounge chair. Danny leaps up onto the chair and curls up into Vlad’s side, grateful for the warmth. Now that he has something to compare it to, he really knows what this man smells like: aftershave, engine oil, fresh laundry, and a tang of something that must be ectoplasm. He can also smell the sun on the horizon: the flowers beginning to open again, the birds chirping in the east. By the time the sky is tinted pink, Vlad scoops him up and carries him back to his den, where Danny tunnels back through the pillows and drops off to sleep quicker than thought.

 

When he wakes again, it is to the scent of bacon—which suddenly smells much too salty and sharp. It’s not long before there’s a deep voice just outside his burrow saying, “It’s moonrise, little badger. Come on out.”

 

Things go on like that for a week. Burrowing in pillows during the day while Vlad works on finding the witch. Foraging at night and curling up against Vlad as dawn breaks. He falls in love with a maple tree in Vlad’s yard that is perfect for sharpening his claws on. When he’s sleepy, he’s careless enough with his claws to rip holes in a couple of pillows, but that’s okay because the feathers are even comfier that way. And when he’s _really_ sleepy, he makes one ill-fated attempt to groom Vlad.

 

On Tuesday and Thursday, the weather’s bad, so Danny puts up with being inside for awhile. He gets lost in his bowl of oats while Vlad sits beside him and tinkers with a metal shock-collar. Danny doesn’t get nervous about it because it’s way too big for him and Vlad keeps muttering _let’s see how that dratted witch likes this_ and _the struggles of making a magic-proof metal_.

 

Even five days in, Danny still panics a little whenever he catches sight of himself in the mirror. Renegade witches are the worst.

 

Saturday comes around again, bringing more rain clouds and autumn chill. They’re down in the lab together, which is thankfully free of cloning tanks or anything particularly sinister. Vlad is testing out the finalized collar on a watermelon, which emits a foul smoke when he zaps it at full-strength. Danny gets a lungful of it and sneezes, the motion making him scoot back an inch. Vlad thinks he’s cute. He doesn’t need to say it, but Danny knows he’s thinking it.

 

His suspicions are confirmed when Vlad taps him on the nose and coos, “Ah, my teeny-tiny mascot.” Danny nips him on the finger and Vlad pulls it away, shaking it out and looking just a bit less smug.

 

A klaxon blares from Vlad’s watch, the interface lighting up at the very same moment that one of his vultures soars into the room and squawks, “She’s at Amity Park Zoo!”

 

In a flash, Vlad transforms, bundles Danny into his arms, and they make good time zooming through the Ghost Zone. They end up at the far end of the zoo, where the witch is busy antagonizing the monkeys through the bars, turning their ears into frogs and butterflies.

 

Vlad immediately activates the shock-collar and tosses it right at her neck. It snaps shut around her throat while she’s still turning around. When she raises her wand at him, Vlad zaps her with the press of a button, but it looks like the collar’s just not powerful enough to knock her out. Still, it must hurt because she shrieks and launches herself at them both, so Danny leaps forward with his jaws wide-open. He bites her on the ankle. Hard.

 

“ _Ow!_ Ow, ow, ow--” When she starts trying to kick him off, Vlad uses her distraction to fly close enough to wrest the wand right out of her hand and snap it over his knee. The witch shrieks as she disappears in a puff of smoke—hopefully for good, this time. Danny suddenly finds his teeth clenched around nothing and he drops back down to the ground, claws clicking on asphalt. He and Vlad stare at each other for a beat in mystified silence. And then a kind of stretching, bendy, ticklish feeling spreads through him, making him arch his back as his bones lengthen and his fur recedes into his skin like grass growing in reverse, in slow-motion. By the time it’s over, all Danny can do is sprawl back on his elbows, grateful to see that he’s been restored with all of his clothes on.

 

From inside the zoo, he can hear a sudden clamor of confused voices and one man yelling, “Where did my tail go?”

 

When he tilts his head back to look at Vlad, the man is floating a few inches off the ground, smirking through the words: “Ah, it’s nice to see you again, little—“

 

“Don’t. Don’t even say it.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Danny Fenton is a Hufflepuff. Fight me.


End file.
